The Cup Is
Full
Cheers,
After a week in
Leicester I took the train back to Wigan, where I had already given a hiphop
writing workshop back in April.
One of the participants was Alexandra Lorence, a professional jazz singer who later invited me to return to work on a song collaboration
and guest star at one of her shows.
In a smoky tavern called Dimitri's in Manchester Alexandra belted out jazz tunes accompanied by her drummer and an incredible 72 year-old keyboard player named Vinnie Parker, the epitome of cool. I stepped in to freestyle over a few of their standards, "Route 66" and "I Just Wanna Make Love To You", and also got them to play jazz versions of some of my solo tracks as well, "Scientist" and "Babel". It was a foray into a new genre for me, and I found that live jazz and hip-hop mix naturally in their improvisational elements and swing rhythms.
From Manchester I
headed up to Jarrow, on the outskirts of Newcastle, once home of the Venerable
Bede. Bede was a monk, poet,
writer and historian who lived in Northern England in the eighth century, and
parts of his original monastery are still standing, now an archaeological
area. The site is also the home of
a new museum called "Bede's World" which booked me for a performance
and workshop with local teenagers.
Afterwards the museum coordinator got so keen on the medieval rap
concept that she asked me to run a special workshop with teenagers in the area
to translate Bede's "Account of Caedmon" into rap, and is arranging
for us to perform this new adaptation in the restored chapel that Bede himself
worshipped in over twelve hundred years ago. I will return to Jarrow for this unique event in just under
once month.
The common trend
recently is that my adventures have become self-perpetuating, as the more I
travel and perform the more new opportunities arise. This bodes well for the future. When I began this tour my agent had arranged a schedule with
three or four shows per week, and quite a few free days, but as new requests have
continued to flow in it has gotten to the point where my tour schedule is now
fully booked. I will be in the UK
for the next five weeks and I have something scheduled almost every single day,
so we now have to turn down requests for performances. This is a mixed blessing, an
accomplishment I wish I had time to celebrate.
Tomorrow I'm
performing in Crawley and then going to Brighton for a hip hop show I set up
with Vancouver's own underground battle and beat-box champion MC Emotionz, who has appeared at my annual Rap is Poetry
concerts. Then on Sunday I fly to Aberdeen for the Scottish wing of
this tour, where I will be visiting Gordonstoun, one of the UK's top boarding
schools and the alma mater of Prince Charles.
Performing shows,
teaching, recording songs, building cultural bridges, traveling, networking,
and making a living at it - this may indeed be my ideal life, if I can survive
it. Until next time,
baba